Thursday, April 07, 2011

"Do as I say, not as I do." Apple has just released an app into the App Store that theoretically violates its App Store policies, and should have been rejected.

Worse, Apple recently rejected a very similar app, for the same reasons that should have resulted in its own app being bumped.

The new Apple app is called iAd Gallery. The app basically just aggregates all the iAd ads in one place.

According to Apple's own rules, section 2.13, "Apps that are primarily marketing materials or advertisements will be rejected."

It can be argued that the iAd Gallery is primarily marketing material, and without trying hard, either.

However, a developer had the idea first, and submitted Ads Tube to the App Store, where is was rejected for for a “lack of functionality,” aside from marketing materials, that is. The app was rejected last year, some 9 months ago. The obvious question that comes to mind is if Apple thought it was a great idea, and rejected the app only to produce their own version.

While it's believed that Ads Tube was rejected by Apple because of 2.13, according to a commenter at Engadget, the message "Not necessary," was also sent to the developer. Assuming that is correct, why is iAd Gallery "necessary."

One other snarky theory at Engadget is that the app is now necessary because iAd revenue hasn't been as high as Apple would like.

We'll never know the truth, but the developer's YouTube video on Ads Tube is embedded below.